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2nd October 2025
08:33am BST
French soldiers have boarded an oil tanker which is believed to be part of Russia's 'shadow fleet', used to evade sanctions imposed because of the war in Ukraine.
The Boracay set sail from Russia last month and was sailing off the coast of Denmark when unidentified drones forced the closure of several airports the previous week.
The vessel had been anchored off the western coast of France for a few days.
French President Emmanuel Macron said at an EU leaders' summit in Copenhagen yesterday (1 October) that the crew onboard the Borocay had committed "serious offences", however, dit not go into detail about what these entailed, per the BBC.
Dmitry Peskov, spokesperson of the Kremlin, claimed Russia did not know of the vessel.
Macron refused to elaborate when asked whether the ship may have been used as a platform for the drone flights, which caused major disruption in Denmark just last week.
Prosecutors in Brest have since launched an investigation on two counts: refusing an order to stop and failing to justify the nationality of the ship's flag, per the BBC.
Various Western countries have imposed sanctions on Russian energy by limiting its imports and putting a cap on the price of its oil after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
In an effort to evade these sanctions, Moscow has built up what has been previously referred to as a "shadow fleet" of tankers whose ownership and movements could be concealed.
It is believed that Russia has a fleet of several hundred tankers, which are all registered in other countries and which are used to export its petrol. According to Macron, Russia's 'shadow fleet' contains between 600 and 1,000 ships.
The Borocay, which also goes by the names of Pushpa and Kiwala, is a Benin-flagged vessel, yet has been listed under UK and EU sanctions against Russia.
The vessel had already been detained earlier this year due to its sailing without a valid country flag.
EU leaders have been meeting in Copenhagen in hopes of improving European defence after a series of Russian attacks into EU airspace, and following the drone attacks targeting Danish airports.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told reporters that "from a European perspective there is only one country... willing to threaten us and that is Russia, and therefore we need a very strong answer back," per the BBC.
However, Danish authorities are yet to find evidence strong enough to condemn Russia for last week's drone disruption.
